The Spacek SD-1 Minisport is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

amateur-built aircraft, designed by Igor Špaček and produced by Spacek of

Hodonín Hodonín (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. Geography Hodonín is located about southeast of Brno, on the border with Slovakia. It lies in a flat landscape of the Lower Morava Va ...

. The aircraft was also produced for a short time in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by SkyCraft Airplanes of

Orem, Utah Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Utah, Provo, Lindon, Utah, Lindon, and Vineyard, Utah, Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the pri ...

as a

light-sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictions on weigh ...

, but they had gone out of businesses by 2017. The aircraft is supplied in the form of plans, as a kit for amateur construction, or as a ready-to-fly aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 120. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485XTacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 127. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The aircraft features a cantilever

low-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

, a single-seat enclosed cockpit, fixed

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

or optionally

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

, a

T-tail A T-tail is an empennage wikt:configuration, configuration in which the tailplane of an aircraft is mounted to the top of the vertical stabilizer, fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs fr ...

and a single engine in

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

. Due to its very light weight it can qualify for the German 120 kg category. It complies with the United Kingdom SSDR rules for single seat deregulated microlight aeroplanes. The aircraft is made from wood, with judicious use of composites, including for the

wing spar In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles (or thereabouts depending on wing sweep) to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on ...

. Its span wing employs an A315

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

, has an area of and utilizes

flaperon A flaperon (a portmanteau of '' flap'' and ''aileron'') on an aircraft's wing is a type of control surface that combines the functions of both flaps and ailerons. Some smaller kitplanes have flaperons for reasons of simplicity of manufactur ...

s. Engines of can be used. Standard engines tested are the

Hirth F33 The Hirth F-33 is a single cylinder, two stroke, carburetted aircraft engine designed for use on ultralight aircraft, including powered paragliders and ultralight trikes. the engine is noted for its extremely light base weight of . It is ma ...

, the Hirth F23

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which re ...

s, the or Briggs & Stratton Vanguard (designated SE24), or the Verner JCV-360 powerplants. The

Rotax 447 The Rotax 447 is a , inline 2-cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, built by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catalog'', pages 6-105. Leading Edge Airfoils, 1995. Design and developme ...

Hirth 2702 The Hirth 2702 and 2703 are a family of in-line twin cylinder, two stroke, carburetted aircraft engines designed for use on ultralight aircraft and especially two seat ultralight trainers, single seat gyrocopters, and small homebuilts. It i ...

Zanzottera MZ 201 The Zanzottera MZ 201 and MZ 202 are a family of twin-cylinder, in-line two-stroke, dual ignition aircraft engines designed for ultralight aircraft and motor gliders.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page G-1 ...

Simonini Victor 1 Super The Simonini Victor 1 Super is an Italian aircraft engine, designed and produced by Simonini Racing of San Dalmazio di Serramazzoni for use in ultralight aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation ...

2si 460 The 2si 460 is a family of in-line twin-cylinder, two-stroke, single ignition, aircraft engines that were designed for ultralight aircraft.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page G-2 Cybair Limited Publishing, 20 ...

and

Half VW The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an Air-cooled engine, air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinder (engine), cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankca ...

can also be used. By November 2015 113 had been sold worldwide and about 41 were flying. At the end of May 2014 SkyCraft Airplanes announced that light-sport flight testing on its version had been completed. Their model has a revised cockpit, including Dynon SkyView instrumentation, a hydraulic brake system and the Hirth F-23 two-stroke fuel-injected engine. The company's intention was that 12 aircraft would be built for the first production run. However, as of 7 August 2017 the SD-1 was still not on the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

's list of accepted light-sport aircraft.

Variants

;SD-1 TD :Conventional landing gear (taildragger) version ;SD-1 TG :Tricycle gear version ;SD-1 TD XL :Conventional landing gear (taildragger) version for taller pilots ;SD-1 TG XL :Tricycle gear version for taller pilots ;SD-2 SportMaster : 2-seat tricycle gear version

Accidents

* In September 2013, during a test and evaluation flight of the sole example flying in the United States, the pilot lost control while flying aerobatics not approved for the aircraft type and the aircraft crashed. The

ballistic parachute A ballistic parachute, ballistic reserve parachute, or emergency ballistic reserve parachute, is a parachute ejected from its casing by a small explosion, much like that used in an ejection seat. The advantage of the ballistic parachute over a co ...

did not deploy properly, most likely due to be out of limits for deployment, and the pilot was killed. * In August 2018, near Nannhausen in Germany, an SD1 crashed after engine problems during climb-out after take-off. The pilot did not survive, the SD1 was written off. * In June 2021, a loss of control accident happened in Butler, Ohio/USA. The pilot failed to maintain adequate airspeed following a partial loss of engine power during take-off, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. The pilot survived, the airplane suffered substantial damage.

Specifications (SD-1)

References

External links